WIND & WUTHERING

"Wind and Wuthering" is probably the last five stars album produced by Genesis, since none of the ones which came afterwards deserves that rating, although we still can find good and listenable ones (as well as total horrors, like "Abacab") This album shows again that even without Peter Gabriel, the band is still in fine shape, specially, as always, Tony Banks and Steve Hackett, also accompanied by the again powerful (like in "A Trick of The Tail") Phil Collins' drumming Every piece of this album is a gem, except probably "Your own special way", the only weak link here. "Eleven Earl of Mar" is probably the song I've played the most on any of my music devices in the last months, I'm totally obsessed with it, since it contains one of the most brilliant mellotron work ever found. "One for the Vine" is a complex and multilayered composition, probably their best long composition of the late seventies. "Wot Gorilla" is another subtle and melodic mellotronic instrumental piece, worth listening several times in a row. "All in a mouse's night" is a probably excesively infatuated song still grand in the well performed spirit of the album. "Blood on the rooftops" is another trademark Hackett composition, providing a relaxing touch at this passage. "Unquiet Slumbers for Sleepers" is an intro with a bit of psychedelia to ".. In That Quiet Earth", one of the strongest tracks we can find on the record, very in the line of "Los Endos". "AfterGlow" is a languid yet melodic ending piece full of charm.

Again, I find that after this, Genesis still managed to perform some remarkable work and I don't strictly think that here ended their proggresive stage (I think "Duke" was their last remotely proggresive effort). But it is true that after Steve Hackett left, it wouldn't be the same. A pity.